How do I resize my EC2 Windows instance or change the EC2 Windows instance type?

Short description

You can change instance types to do the following:

• Increase or decrease the number of CPU cores.
• Increase or decrease the amount of RAM.
• Enable Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) optimization.
• Enable enhanced networking.
• Change GPU cores.

Resolution

To resize your EC2 instance, choose an instance type that meets your CPU, RAM, and feature requirements.

Consider the following before resizing your EC2 Windows instance:

• If you launch instances from Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), install the required drivers for the destination instance type. This needs to be done for custom Windows AMIs and Amazon-provided Windows AMIs created before August 2018. Status checks fail if the instance doesn't have the required drivers.
• For instances created from AMIs after August 2018 install or upgrade the required drivers for the destination instance type.
• Verify that your current instance type is compatible with the new instance type that you choose.
• If the current instance has an instance store volume, any data on the instance store volume is lost when the instance is stopped. Be sure to back up the data on your instance before you stop the instance.
• If you're not using an Elastic IP address, the public IP address is released when you stop the instance.
• It's a best practice to maintain backups of your instances and data. Consider creating an AMI or creating snapshots of your EBS volumes before you change the instance type.
• If your instance is part of an Auto Scaling group, change the launch configuration to launch the new instance type. On the Copy Launch Configuration page, choose the new instance type.

Related information

Status checks for your instances

Troubleshoot instance launch issues

How do I move my EC2 instance to another subnet, Availability Zone, or VPC

Creating a launch configuration

Modify the supported instance types (Change instance types on the same Dedicated Host)